Ditch the poles

[asolo]

Spent a day skiing everything without poles, steeps and flats and sl gates and panels. Doing short turns, arcing, slarving. This seems to help a ton.

After a day, the short skis become as comfortable as skates. It feels kind of liberating. No crutches. You are just a skater on snow and skaters don't need sticks. Completely changes how you treat the environment.

W/o poles, it seems like I don't get caught in a back seat or push the ski sideways across the slope on steeps. I can see my hands in front all the time. The upper body stays upright and quiet. If I ever let my upper body rotate, I get punished immediately.

Plan to do this some more. If you are stuck in your progress, try it. This may help to get out of the rut. I am definitely having a ton of fun with this. YMMV.

 

[François Pugh]

I used to be paranoid of skiing without ski poles; I thought I would jinx myself real bad. I even rented poles when I had forgotten mine at home. It was all in my head, but the placebo effect is effective a significant proportion of the time. Then one day I broke my right radius and found it too uncomfortable to grip a pole in that hand. Since I still had a few hours of good skiing left to be had, I left my poles at the top of the hill and skied without them for the rest of the day. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, not a problem at all. Since then, I've repeated the procedure several times for different injuries over the years.

Everybody should give it (skiing without poles, not injuring yourself) a try.

 

[Blue Streak]

Without poles what would you use to skewer snowboarders?

 

[François Pugh]

Without poles what would you use to skewer snowboarders?

A sidekick with the blade (not the heel) with a bit of round house blended in.

 

[Swede]

Ditching poles tells you a lot. In ”my” club, normally, first two days of pre season race camps on Hintertux would always be sans poles free skiing on SL and GS skis. Then dropping the poles a re-occuring ingredient through out season practice, free skiing and in course too.

 

[oldschoolskier]

I have left the poles behind, they didn’t like missing a day on the hill and drank all my liqueur.

 

[Jilly]

I remember years ago when Head came out with the really short Cyber skis, I was at a CSIA ladies day event. We were to demo these skis. Well DH had a pair, so I took them. Second run in, coach asked everyone to leave their poles at the top of the run. Oh my....damn near a revolt from the group. I happily planted mine and followed. The only problem is getting up if you fall on the flats and are not a supple as you used to be.

Paging @ADKmel who used to ski all the time without poles!!

 

[Mike King]

Some recent coaching has highlighted how children often mirror movements in the feet and legs with their arms and legs. As kids mature, they tend to lose this mirroring, but even as adults using these mirroring can have a strong connection. So, skiing without poles can allow you to use the arms and hands to communicate what you would like the legs and feet to do in your ski turn.

I've used this just a little bit in some of my training this season, generally while holding both poles in one hand. I think I need to go out without the poles and try it a bit more...

Mike

 

[Posaune]

If you used these poles you would never ski without them:

 

[Jilly]

If I remember correctly....LEKI had those...

 

[Ogg]

If I remember correctly....LEKI had those...

I don't know about LEKI but there's these:
https://www.whiskipoles.com
ot these

 

[ADKmel]

When Shaped skis came out I threw away my poles and skied no poles for about 20yrs.
I got back into teaching and relearned how to use them.
I still say they can interrupt your turn, can hamper your balance and really unless you're in bumps or trees and need 'out riggers'
Finishing your turn is easier without poles IMO.

Skiing without poles will give you the best balance and will amplify your 'bad movements' No pole skiing will teach you to keep your hands in front of you- dropping an arm/pole and dragging it- watch people from the lift and see how many let their arms/poles drop- creating a twist in their upper body.

Try it..

 

[cantunamunch]

Everybody should give it (skiing without poles, not injuring yourself) a try.

Certainly. But 'no poles' doesn't fix all problems - and the proof is all the skaters dropping their inside shoulders before they even start to angulate.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I think I would struggle in lift mazes without poles. Particularly some of the longer, flatter mazes of today. I also really appreciate them when I need to skate on long flat traverses.

 

[Ogg]

I think I would struggle in lift mazes without poles. Particularly some of the longer, flatter mazes of today. I also really appreciate them when I need to skate on long flat traverses.

Also clicking out of your bindings without wrecking your skis is problematic. I had a guy at an on mountain demo event refuse to hand me a pair of skis because I went to get them without my poles. I had to assure him I had poles and point them out to him on the rack.

 

[cantunamunch]

I think I would struggle in lift mazes without poles. Particularly some of the longer, flatter mazes of today. I also really appreciate them when I need to skate on long flat traverses.

Herringbone climbing practice improves flat skating fast.

 

[SkiVt]

When Shaped skis came out I threw away my poles and skied no poles for about 20yrs.
I got back into teaching and relearned how to use them.
I still say they can interrupt your turn, can hamper your balance and really unless you're in bumps or trees and need 'out riggers'
Finishing your turn is easier without poles IMO.

Skiing without poles will give you the best balance and will amplify your 'bad movements' No pole skiing will teach you to keep your hands in front of you- dropping an arm/pole and dragging it- watch people from the lift and see how many let their arms/poles drop- creating a twist in their upper body.

Try it..

Tell me about it, there was a skier/boarder cross combined and skiers were not allowed to use poles in the race through the terrain course it made for some interesting crashes

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

Herringbone climbing practice improves flat skating fast.

I can do it, but it’s not my preference - particularly on long traverses!

 

[cantunamunch]

I can do it, but it’s not my preference - particularly on long traverses!

I get ya - just pointing out a possible exploration/conditioning direction. Shoulder-width double stair climbing would also work.

 

[Steve]

Skating on skis is fun and a great drill.